The invention relates to a support for properly positioning a patient during medical treatment and diagnosis. In particular, it relates to a support for positioning the head and upper part of a patient's body during a diagnostic imaging process.
There is known a positioning aid assembly composed of a head holder and a thorax cushion covered with a liner and a pad on top of the liner. Holder, cushion and pad are made from different resins, and the liner consists of a laminated piece of wood. The holder is tiltably connected to the liner by means of a metallic subassembly shaped like a cylinder and provided with an adjusting lever. Such a support has a relatively complicated and heavy structure which cannot be easily installed or removed, and allows only limited position changes. In addition, the different materials and shapes used for the individual parts cause the imaging radiation to be greatly attenuated in locally varying degrees.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a support for the upper portion of a patient's body, which is simple and light and can easily be manufactured and handled.
It is another object to provide such a support which absorbs imaging radiation only slightly and uniformly.
It is a further object to provide such a support which is resilient such that its form adapts to different body shapes and which also has the necessary rigidity for carrying the body weight.
It is still a further object to provide such a patient support which allows a controlled elevation of the upper portion of the patient's body.
Yet another object is to improve on known devices of this type.